Flys coming out of disused fireplace

Midge

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Aug 31, 2009, 11:33:03 AM8/31/09

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My mother-in-law has started getting high number of house flys into her
living room over the last week. The largest number was around 15 in one day,
but now its down to maybe 2-5 a day which is still upsetting enough. Having
ruled out all other possibilities, I was wondering about the fireplace, and
finally this morning, I saw a couple actually emerge so I can now be
certain.

One was in the top of the fireplace near bits of old newspaper stuffed
around a metal sealing plate of some description. The other emerged much
further down from a gap between the fire back, and one side of the tiled
front of the surround. I've sealed up the fireplace with plastic sheet
temporarily, but as I've only lived in a modern house, I'm not sure how best
to deal with it.

I assume there is something decomposing up there which the flies are tucking
into - but the chimney pot does have like a curved tile over the top of it
so I'd have thought until now there was little likelyhood of anything
dropping down. I certainly don't want to disturb the sealing plate as the
chimney will probably not have been swept in 25-30 years.

I'm thinking that as this is a one-off, I might just call in a chimney sweep
but wasn't sure if a sweep typically does things like re-sealing them
properly too?

Any thoughts/ideas?

TIA, Midge.

Andy Champ

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Aug 31, 2009, 11:52:12 AM8/31/09

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Midge wrote:
> My mother-in-law has started getting high number of house flys into her
> living room over the last week. The largest number was around 15 in one day,
> but now its down to maybe 2-5 a day which is still upsetting enough. Having
> ruled out all other possibilities, I was wondering about the fireplace, and
> finally this morning, I saw a couple actually emerge so I can now be
> certain.
>

Are you sure they are house flies (which are silent)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housefly

not blow flies (which buzz)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blow_fly

or cluster flies (which usually do very little at all!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_fly

because the reasons they turn up are different.

Andy

Midge

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Aug 31, 2009, 12:03:08 PM8/31/09

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Pretty sure they are house flies Andy. That's why it's taken so long to
pinpoint where they were coming from - i.e. no buzz, we had to scour the
place and keep watch until we saw where they were coming from.

Midge.

"Andy Champ" <no....@nospam.invalid> wrote in message
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Andy Champ

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Aug 31, 2009, 12:07:11 PM8/31/09

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Midge wrote:
> Pretty sure they are house flies Andy. That's why it's taken so long to
> pinpoint where they were coming from - i.e. no buzz, we had to scour the
> place and keep watch until we saw where they were coming from.
>

If you had a dead whatever-it-was down the chimney I'd expect blowflies,
or at least _one_ of the calliphora species (says he delving back _many_
years in vague memory) rather than house flies. That would suggest just
rubbish, not dead flesh. No smell?

Andy

Midge

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Aug 31, 2009, 12:24:35 PM8/31/09

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There doesn't seem to be any smell Andy - so that might tie in.

"Andy Champ" <no....@nospam.invalid> wrote in message

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mark

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Aug 31, 2009, 6:04:16 PM8/31/09

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"Andy Champ" <no....@nospam.invalid> wrote in message

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fireflies?

mark

Mentalguy2k8

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Sep 1, 2009, 5:30:37 AM9/1/09

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"mark" <ma...@reepham2003.force9.co.uk> wrote in message
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Ha ha, that's grate !

Barb

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Sep 1, 2009, 9:14:18 AM9/1/09

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"Midge" <mi...@somewhere.com> wrote in message
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Given that it doesn't appear to be a body of any kind, maybe they are just
being opportunistic and have found a convenient place to breed.

How a bout a good belt of Raid behind your plastic sheet?

I dislike flies immensely, but not as much as spiders!

Barb

Andy Champ

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Sep 1, 2009, 2:57:08 PM9/1/09

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Barb wrote:
>
> Given that it doesn't appear to be a body of any kind, maybe they are just
> being opportunistic and have found a convenient place to breed.
>
> How a bout a good belt of Raid behind your plastic sheet?
>
> I dislike flies immensely, but not as much as spiders!
>

yeah... but... if you have enough spiders they eat the flies!

Andy

Midge

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Sep 1, 2009, 3:13:09 PM9/1/09

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Anything that eats flies and wasps is fine by me - eventhough the spiders in
my garage are so big you can hear them run!

Anyway, went around there tonight and found a couple of dead flies behind
the sheet (I had given it a blast of fly spray before I sealed it as was
suggested).

So I'll maybe leave it a few days and see how it goes......

Cheers.

Midge

"Andy Champ" <no....@nospam.invalid> wrote in message

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Andrew Gabriel

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Sep 1, 2009, 3:56:44 PM9/1/09

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In article <PKmdnRsorabR7wDX...@bt.com>,

"Midge" <mi...@somewhere.com> writes:
> Anything that eats flies and wasps is fine by me - eventhough the spiders in
> my garage are so big you can hear them run!

I have a number of Carnivorous plants around the house, and I
virtually never see any flying insects. Initially I was worried
they might not be getting enough to eat, but on inspection,
there are flies trapped inside. However, I still put them
outdoors for a good feed on the flying ant day. ;-)

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Bikini Whacks

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Sep 1, 2009, 4:44:34 PM9/1/09

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This is more common than you might think and, I'm afraid, is a genital
hygeine issue.